Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Style

I could be wrong about this accusation I'm about to make, but I kind of doubt it. Recently, I've been realizing how completely different my photography style is. In general, I don't really know if that's a good thing or not, but it is for me because it defines me as a person. If I went to some sort of photography school, they probably wouldn't like me too much, but I'm not worried about that.

I've noticed that when I take landscape pictures and perhaps there is a tree in the photo, I like to cut off the top of the tree. In some of my pictures of people, I am more interested in the background than the person's face, so I'll zoom out. For the average viewer of my photos, they don't really like these things. Hahahaha. My mom tells me it's kind of weird and a teacher at my school saw some of my photos and wasn't too fond of it either. It sort of made me laugh, though. I love it that way. I like being different and I like the fact that my photos don't always please EVERYONE. What's the fun of photography if your photos make everyone happy? You'd never strive to be better. I watched a live streaming of Jasmine Star over the summer. She shot a wedding live and it was the greatest thing ever. I learned so much. But one question Jasmine asked was, "If you could pick three words to define your photography, what would they be?" At first, the question frustrated me. She talked about how you should pick three words that truly describe you and make each picture showcase those words. I couldn't think of three words and I didn't think any words suited me or my style. I kept thinking about it over the next few months and finally came up with my words. For people that aren't photographers, this might be weird. But I think my words are creative, lively, and genuine. Creative because I do a lot of different stuff with my photography. Lively because my photos are for the most part colorful and interesting. Genuine because when I take pictures of people, I capture their laughs, their huge smiles that bring out dimples, and just their personality in general.

Maybe my photography is too similar to everyone else's. That could be how you see it. Sometimes I think that, too. But when I look at all of my photos separately, I see them as being unique. There is NO way I can copy someone else and get the same result. I can copy someone else's pose and it won't turn out the same. I can copy the way someone composed a photo and it won't turn out the same. I could go to the same location at the same time with the same people in the same outfits using the same camera settings and my photo would NOT be the same as that other photographer's photo. And that's why I love photography. =D.